Bette Kane

10/23/2012

Covergirl:
I love J.H. Williams. I love Wonder Woman. It follows that I’d
love this cover. And I do, though the buggy creature’s crawly legs make my skin
creep.

Ramble: Confusing astonishing brilliance. I grasped the overall story arc, but needed
to re-read a number of pages to grasp the story. I would have revisited them
anyway, as the art blew me away, even more than it always blows me away.

Perhaps
Williams felt constrained by the linear visual/narrative structure of the last
issue, because he’s busting out artistic moves the likes of which I’ve never
seen in a comic book. Crazy breathtaking art: the undersea maze, Jake and
Bette’s silent meditation face-off, and especially the dark exchange between Wonder
Woman (small yellow retro – or traditional? - comic book font), Batwoman (white
bubbles, black font), and ancient Nyx (evil bad-person grey font bringing to
mind babbling letters from serial killers).

Todd
Klein, who lettered this issue of Batwoman*, bears mention at this point.

Comic
book fonts are subtle, powerful tools creators employ to evince a mood, an era,
or the batshit nature of the evil residing in a new foe. Letterers
play a crucial role in setting a character’s, and a comic book’s, tone. I don’t
think anyone outside the hard-core comic book fan universe knows letterers
exist (I didn’t), but in a graphics-focused universe, every serif or lack
thereof matters.

Klein
boasts a 35-year lettering career. Not sure how his peers found fonts, but
Klein’s grandfather worked as a jewelry engraver and sign painter; serif
sensitivity’s in the family. After a partial stint at art school, several
boring jobs, and numerous art and writing submissions to fanzines and comic
book companies, Klein landed at DC Comics in the late ’70s and stayed for a
decade before becoming an independent letterer.

Klein’s
lettered a number of greats, including Neil Gaiman’s Sandman and this here
Batwoman we’re discussing today.

This
is just to say NOT that I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox BUT to
note that every detail in these books matters. Someone has obsessed over every
component, including the letters. In Batwoman #13 and so many others (Wonder
Woman #0 immediately springs to mind), the letters are not only vessels, but
story elements in their own right.

I
wanted to make sure you all appreciated that.

And
now, I’m crawling into another writing project. Thanks to a tossing daughter and 2 feline
tossers, I’ve been up since 3 a.m. I’m cranky. I’m crabby. And my brain is full
of sludge. While I should probably edit the writing, which has been sitting on the
page for months, I’ll probably just pull the warmest bits up over my head and
go back to sleep.

* I've never written fan mail, but I wrote a fan e-mail to Todd Klein after this issue. Kind, he wrote back, to say thank you and also to give credit to Williams, who lettered Nyx's voice in the panel above.

08/20/2012

COVERGIRL: My dad’s old school, preferring to riff on the Lord’s name when angry, instead of employing more vulgar and, in my opinion, satisfactory cusses. In deference to him, and in response to the Batwoman-Wonder Woman combo promised by this cover, I say a hearty, “GOD DAMN!”

INSIDE STORY: Batwoman seeks Sune and her gaggle of horrific urban legends brought to life. Employing the help of werewolf Kyle Abbot, she find Bloody Mary, whose myth little Gotham girls recite at slumber parties to engender the chills.

Instead of collapsing into giggles like Gotham’s tweens, Batwoman summons the demon spirit. Mary informs Batwoman that Medusa isn’t an organization, but rather the Queen Monster, snake-tressed Gorgon of old.

Gotham’s superheroes face a variety of evils, but Greek gods are the stuff of someone else's legend: Wonder Woman’s. Batwoman tells DEO boss Bones it’s time to bring in the Amazon.

Though Kate Kane doesn’t reach out to Diana until book’s end, Wonder Woman’s current status is woven (gorgeously) throughout the book. She’s battling a serpentine crew, and vows to destroy them all. Serpentine. Medusa. Do I have to spell it out?

Also, Gotham parents grieving for their kidnapped children berate poor hard-working Maggie Sawyer. Kate’s not up to the task of comforting. She’s off to Paradise Island.

Also, Bette Kane/Flamebird is out of the hospital and living with Uncle Jake.

Gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous. I’m always blathering on about the art in this book, so I won’t. But really. Gorgeous.

The juxtaposition of Wonder Woman’s story and Batwoman’s, which can’t help but be awesome for the awesomeness of the awesome women, is the more brilliant for the writing.

I never noticed how distinct Batwoman’s voice is, probably because I was so busy drooling over the art. (Have I mentioned gorgeous?) She’s of Gotham, matter-of-fact and about the facts; closer to Batman-speak than quippy Batgirl’s intelligent chatter.

Wonder Woman, who in her own book remains fairly silent, the better to shine in the midst of her garrulous family’s mad bickering, here speaks like a grandiloquent stereotype of herself. Alone she might sound ridiculous, but when her godly speech runs alongside Batwoman’s straight prose … genius!

I had been excited for September, for all the #0 backstorying, but now I just want to skip ahead to October and see what happens next. Perhaps Harrison’s will let me set up a tent.

WHO THE HELL ARE THESE PEOPLE?

Kate Kane: Survived a brutal kidnapping by terrorists that killed her mother and turned her sister into a crazy villain. West Point student, expelled under Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. Dating Detective Sawyer.

Batwoman: Kate’s awesome superhero alter-ego. Currently working with Agent Chase and the DEO, who will arrest Kate's dad if she doesn’t help them.

Kyle Abbot: Werewolf; sometimes villainous, sometimes helpful

Bloody Mary: Spirit of Mary Worth, who went on a she-killing rampage after her husband proved unfaithful. Hanged. Brought back to miserable half-life, presumably by Medusa, to help capture children.

Bones: Batwoman’s boss in the DEO. His name is literal. The man’s a skeletal version of The X-Files’ Cigarette Smoking Man.

Bette Kane/Flamebird: Kate’s cousin/Batwoman’s former mentee, member of Teen Titans/tennis star. Felled and rendered comatose by one of Medusa’s minions; now back to life and living with Uncle Jake Kane.

07/19/2012

COVERGIRL: Just shy of loving it. Full-on love the pale green python circling the action and the red-and-white-film-negative look on the right, but the monstrous face looks cheap. If that makes sense. Everything is as sharp and crisp as a new dollar bill except Sir/Madam Melty. Perhaps that’s the point. Let’s flip it open.

INSIDE STORY: Sir Melty. The skully melt-head is Maro, or is it Sune, or is Sune Maro and Maro Sune, or are they everyone or at least a lot of someones?

The last one. Sort of. Maro is a shapeshifter. He’s also, thanks to Falchion’s demise, leader of the subterranean band of creepy misfits plaguing Gotham. He sets his freak minions to the task of smiting Batwoman and the rest of the city and delivers Gotham’s kidnapped children to a scaly green She named Mitera.

Batwoman battles the creepy misfits, saving her DEO partner Agent Chase in the process. But because Batwoman stopped Chase from killing Maro/Sune, Chase thinks she’s a traitor and tells Detective Sawyer the same. As Batwoman watches Chase and Sawyer from afar, she vows she will save the children.

Also, Kate pushes her relationship with Sawyer forward, sharing pictures of her dead mother, dead sister, and estranged father. Sawyer does the same, revealing she has a daughter she lost in a custody battle.

Also, with some encouragement from Uncle Jake, Bette Kane wakes up!

RAMBLE: Beautiful issue. Art art art let’s talk about the art: the contrast between Batwoman’s black + fire red and Maro’s nighttime-teal + black; the similarities (significant?) between Maro’s palette and that of Undersea Chase; the spread with sea-green Llorona and her tsunami shriek splitting the Batwoman-saves-Chase segments; the page immediately following, all oily blacks and ocean blue-green.

While I admire Batwoman’s character and enjoy the (often overstuffed) story, I go ga-ga for the book’s art. Bonkers gaga. Lady Bonkers Gaga Overtired Overcaffeinated Batmom Getting Silly for the Art.

Also, not sure why, but this issue I kept noticing the cool sound words. (Is a word onomatopoetic if it’s mimicking a sound but isn’t a proper word? They are:

Kate Kane: Survived a brutal kidnapping by terrorists that killed her mother and turned her sister into a crazy villain. West Point student, expelled under Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. Dating Detective Sawyer.

Batwoman: Kate’s awesome superhero alter-ego. Currently working with Agent Chase and the DEO, who will arrest Kate's dad if she doesn’t help them.

DEO: Department of Extranormal Operations

Jake Kane: Kate’s dad and military big-wig. Kate won’t talk to him, though he’ll talk to her. He's been sitting vigil at Bette's bedside for several issues.

Bette Kane/Flamebird: Kate’s cousin/Batwoman’s mentee, member of Teen Titans/tennis star. Has been unconscious for several issues.